It's hard to imagine how much pressure the Brazilian team is under during this World Cup. After all, Brazil is the host nation and their natives are certainly as phutbol phanatical as any other country on the planet. Maybe even more so. They barely escaped a close call against Chile in the Sweet Sixteen. Lots of near misses, and a game that would be decided in "overtime" during a shootout, where the last red hot Chile pepper bounced one off the goal post to seal their fate. Alas, there is no joy in the Hormelville of the Andes, but the Portuguese speaking guys in the yellow shirts march on to the Elite 8.
Mexico collapsed against the Netherlands in the waning minutes of the game, giving up two late goals. In a post-game interview, the Mexican head coach would claim everybody in the whole World Cup hierarchy was against his team. Alas, poor Mexico got the Rodney Dangerfield treatment, he said. Oh, boo hoo hoo. He needs to shut up. Nobody likes sour grapes. They got beat fair and square. They should go back home, break out the Cuevo, and be happy. Besides, they haven't advanced past the Sweet Sixteen in the last quarter century, so it was hardly a surprise they bowed out early again.
Interesting some of the teams that have already been eliminated, particularly the Europeans. Soccer crazy England is gone. With all their "premier" leagues and talent to choose from for a national team, they didn't even make it to the knock-out stage. Pretty sure the Queen is not amused. She likely won't be conferring knighthood on any of those guys soon.
Defending World Cup champ Spain suffered the same fate. They be gone. Warm up the bulls in Pamplona. The boys are back in town, and they can give those pesky toros a serious run for their money. Pity they couldn't score more goals on the pitch.
A supposedly very good Italian team was given the boot back to the "boot". Hard to believe those guys were shy on endurance. I mean, c'mon, given the cuisine they're famous for, how could they NOT have been seriously carbo-loaded?
Costa Rica eliminated Greece in another exciting game. Chalk up one for Central America and down goes another old-worlder. Break out the bananas and let the descendants of the ancients drown their sorrows in ouzo. To the winners go the fruits of victory, while the losers have to settle for getting loaded on that nasty licorice flavored potable. Somewhere I think I faintly hear Harry Belafonte in the background. DAY-O.
On deck is the Germans vs the Algerians. Methinks the latter will be taken back to the mysterious Casbah indeed after that match. As is the USA vs Belgium. Got a coin to flip and feel lucky? Even if the Americans get past the Belgians, they'll likely have to face heavyweight Argentina. Switzerland is famous for a lot of things, like Roger Federer, delectable chocolate, high-priced watches, holey cheese, and secret bank accounts. But does anybody really think they can knock off the 'Tines in a soccer match when the crowd will be so heavily against them? Not I.
Still, all the pressure remains on Brazil, the host country. If they were to be eliminated, entirely possible as the competition gets tougher, it would likely be considered a national disaster. Yours truly was somewhat surprised to learn that Brazil had over 10 first-class venues for these games to be played at. That's a lot of stadiums.
And looking at the geography, some of them are quite far apart. A few hours, even by your typical charter jet liner.
Maybe I should have paid more attention to a man who led our country for eight years. After no doubt being extensively briefed, ex-President George W. Bush once said, "Wow, Brazil is big". Yep, that Dubyah could be sharp as a tack sometimes, or was that a bowling ball? No matter. He be gone too.
A question--- what happened to the vuvuzelas at this World Cup? You know, those super-annoying plastic moron horns that were everywhere at the Olympics a couple years ago? Did they ban them from the stadiums in Brazil this time around? One can only hope. The screaming TV announcers are bad enough.
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